1. Field
One or more embodiments relate to a surgical apparatus that has sufficient rigidity and moves flexibly.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, to perform an operation in the abdominal cavity, laparotomy in which an incision is made in the abdomen and surgery is performed in the open state is used. However, laparotomy entails severe pain and long recovery time and causes scarring, and thus, research into minimally invasive surgery has been conducted.
Minimally invasive surgery collectively refers to surgical procedures minimizing the size of the incision. As a representative example, there is laparoscopic surgery. Laparoscopic surgery is an operation in which a plurality of small incisions is made in a patient, a gas is filled into the inside of the patient to form an operation space, and a laparoscope and small surgical instruments are inserted through the incisions. Laparoscopic surgery involving forming a plurality of incisions is also referred to as a multiport surgery.
Laparoscopic surgery is advantageous to an open procedure, but still has some of the same problems as the open procedure because formation of a plurality of incisions is needed.
Thus, research into a single-port surgery in which a single incision is made or natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) in which no incision is made is being conducted.
NOTES is a process whereby a flexible surgical apparatus is inserted into a natural opening, i.e., the mouth or anus to reach an operation site and surgery is performed by operating a surgical instrument contained in an overtube.
The single-port operation and NOTES require that a surgical instrument pass through the inside or organs of a patient which has curvature and be securely fixed at an operation site and thus be supported. Therefore, research into a method of achieving both flexibility and rigidity has recently been conducted.